Canada’s Home Renovation Tax Credit Overview

Posted: October 1, 2009    Categories: Uncategorized    No Comments

Only available for the 2009 tax year, the Home Renovation Tax Credit (HRTC) is providing Canadians a welcome incentive to improve their home.  These improvements can be made to an eligible dwelling (personal residence, home, or cottage).  As well, the tax credit applies on purchases over $1,000 but less than $10,000.

What Qualifies as an Eligible Dwelling?

The CRA website defines an eligible dwelling as a housing unit (house, cottage, condo, etc.) that is the principal residence of one or more of your family members at any time between January 27, 2009 and February 1, 2010.

Effectively, this means that any dwelling inhabited by yourself, your partner (through marriage or common-law), or your children are eligible for the tax credit.

What You Need to Claim the HRTC

Unlike most tax credits, that require vast amounts of documentation to verify your eligibility, the HRTC is quite simple to claim.  You simply need to provide sufficient documentation to prove that you did purchase the improvement you are claiming.  Acceptable documentation includes:

• Contract agreements, invoices, and receipts. So long as these documents clearly state the vendor/contractor, the business address, and the GST/PST registration number.

• The date when the goods/services were delivered/performed

• Proof of payment – Obviously this is needed to prove that you fall into the stipulations mentioned above.

Questions About the HRTC?

This is just a brief overview of the home renovation tax credit.  If you have questions that aren’t addressed here the CRA has set up a minisite that should be able to answer all of your questions.  It can be found here: http://www.cra-arc.gc.ca/hrtc/.

We think that the home renovation tax credit is a great “excuse” for Canadians to go out and renovate!  Receiving a tax credit for performing the renovations that you have been wanting to perform only sweetens the deal!

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